Alternative Sites for School

Re “Site for Juan Soria School,” Ventura County letters, Jan. 21.

This letter characterizing Supervisor John Flynn’s effort to nullify the Oxnard Elementary School District board’s selection of the Emerson Street site as the work of a small, elitist group defies the history of this controversy.

The handful of early dissenters who recognized this dangerous, illogical siting has swelled with every public meeting. Environmentalists, parents, doctors, civic leaders and nongovernmental organizations have all testified to the unsuitability of this site for the Juan Soria school.

Many alternative sites are acceptable to the school board. Why are they so fixated on this location?

BRAD SMITH

Oxnard

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In her recent letter, Susan Alvarez, past president of the Oxnard Elementary School District board of trustees, asked “Where is Flynn?” Well, I can answer that.

Flynn is out trying to find a safe and viable site for a new school, a task that was the school board’s responsibility, and it has failed. From the beginning, the school board has focused on the Emerson Street site and excluded all other sites with half-truths, subterfuge and outright lies.

One doesn’t have to wonder any more about why the board failed. At a recent board meeting, Supt. Richard Duarte expanded the original 14 acres for the Juan Soria school to a possible 40 to 80 acres of agricultural land, stating that they may not build a school on the site after all, and that this was a business deal.

It’s apparent now that the focus of the school district has shifted from educating our children to that of land speculating and developing, with the city of Oxnard as co-conspirator. This all at taxpayers’ expense.

Flynn, as an Oxnard resident and county supervisor, is trying to correct this abuse of power.

EUGENE D. HUBBARD

Oxnard